Modern Music and After

by Griffiths, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780199740505
• ISBN10: 019974050X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Over three decades, Paul Griffiths's survey has remained the definitive study of music since the Second World War; this fully revised and updated edition re-establishes Modern Music and After as the preeminent introduction to the music of our time. The disruptions of the war, and the struggles of the ensuing peace, were reflected in the music of the time: in Pierre Boulez's radical reformation of compositional technique and in John Cage's development of zen music; in Milton Babbitt's settling of the serial system and in Dmitry Shostakovich's unsettling symphonies; in Karl Stockhausen's development of electronic music and in Luigi Nono's pursuit of the universally human, in Iannis Xenakis's view of music as sounding mathematics and in Luciano Berio's consideration of it as language. The initiatives of these composers and their contemporaries opened prospects that haven't yet stopped unfolding. This constant expansion of musical thinking since 1945 has left us with no singular history of music; Griffiths's study accordingly follows several different paths, showing how and why they converge and diverge. This new edition of Modern Music and After discusses not only the music of the fifteen years that have passed since the previous edition, but also the recent explosion of scholarly interest in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. In particular, the third section of the book, 1980-1990, is expanded to incorporate the variety of responses to the modernist impasse experienced by composers of the time. In addition, a new fourth part, "After Postmodernism: the 1990s and 2000s," examines highly influential composers like Philip Glass and Pierre Boulez as well as such topics as "Modernist Continuation" and "Music and the Internet." For its breadth, wealth of detail, and characteristic wit and clarity, the third edition of Modern Music and After is required reading for the student and the enquiring listener.

Author Biography

Paul Griffiths is an acclaimed writer on contemporary and classical music whose books include A Concise History of Western Music and The Penguin Companion to Classical Music. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and has written the libretto for Elliott Carter's What Next? as well as three novels. In 2002, Griffiths was honored by the French government as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Table of Contents

Prelude	p. xvii
1945
Rational and Irrational: Western Europe, 1945-50	p. 3
Paris, 1945-48
The Young Boulez
Boulez's Second Piano Sonata
Other Stories
Musique Concrète
Variations: Nono
Silencing Music: Cage, 1946-52	p. 22
Rhythmic Structuring
Towards Silence
Around Cage
Total Organization: Western Europe, 1949-54	p. 34
The Moment of Total Serialism 1: Darmstadt 1949 and Darmstadt 1951
Interlude: The Patrons of Modernism
The Moment of Total Serialism 2: Paris 1952
The Human Voice 1: Nono
Electronic Music
The Human Voice 2: Barraqué
Classic Modernism and Other Kinds: The United States, 1945-55	p. 57
Schoenberg
Carter
Babbitt
Homemade Music
Wolpe
After Silence
The Cold War	p. 76
Extension and Development: Western Europe, 1953-56	p. 80
From Points to Groups
Systems of Organization
Le Marteau sans maâtre
Sound and Word
...how time passes...
Statistics
1956
Mobile Form: 1956-61	p. 107
Cage
Stockhausen and Boulez
Boulez and Berio
Barraqué
Exit from the Labyrinth
Elder Responses	p. 127
Stravinsky
Messiaen
Varèse
Symphonists and Others
Reappraisal and Disintegration: 1959-64	p. 145
Questioning Voices: Ligeti, Bussotti, Kagel
Stumbling Steps: Kurtág
Listening Ears: Cage, Young, Babbitt
Exploiting the Moment: Stockhausen
The Last Concert: Nono
1965
Of Elsewhen and Elsewhere	p. 167
The Distant Past
(The Imaginary Past)
The Distant or Not So Distant East
Quotation
Meta-Music
Music Theatre	p. 190
Opera and 'Opera'
Music Theatre
Instrumental Theatre
Politics	p. 203
Cardew
Rzewski
The Composer in the Factory
Virtuosity and Improvisation	p. 210
The Virtuoso
Virtuosity in Question
The Electric Musician
Improvisation
Orchestras or Computers	p. 228
Orchestras
Computer Music
Minimalism and Melody	p. 233
New York Minimalism
Minimalism in Europe
Melody
Ending	p. 251
1975
Holy Minimalisms	p. 257
Pärt
Górecki and Tavener
(Messiaen)
Ustvolskaya
New Romanticisms	p. 265
Rihm
Schnittke, and the Hectic Present
Gubaidulina, and the Visionary Future
Silvestrov, and the Reverberating Past
Symphony?
Feldman and Loss
Lachenmann and Regain
New Simplicities	p. 285
Cage, or Innocence
Denyer, or Outsiderness
Kurtág, or Immediacy
Holliger, or Extremity
Sciarrino, or Intimacy
New Complexities	p. 298
Ferneyhough
Finnissy
Charged Solos
Old Complexities	p. 312
Carter and the Poets
Xenakis and the Arditti Quartet
Nono and Listening
Stockhausen and Licht
Birtwistle and Ritual
Berio and Memory
IRCAM and Boulez
Spectralisms	p. 339
Radulescu and Tenney
Grisey
Vivier
(Unholy?) Minimalisms	p. 348
Reich
Andriessen
Referencings	p. 354
Kagel, et al.
Donatoni
Bolcom and Adams
Ligeti
1989
Towards Mode/Meme	p. 365
Rootless Routes: Ligeti
Memory's Memorials: Berio and Kurtág
Remade Modes: Adams, Adès, Benjamin
Pesson's Past and Pauset's
Traditions' Tracks: Around Zorn
Towards the Strange Self	p. 382
Schneewittchen
Entr'acte: Kurtág's Beckett
Luci mie traditrici
Entr'acte: Birtwistle's Celan
Three Sisters
Entr'acte: Kyburz's No-one
Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
Towards Transcendence	p. 396
Gubaidulina and Christ
Haas and Darkness
Harvey and the Goddess
Grisey and Rebirth
Riehm and Reality
2001	p. 409
Towards Change?	p. 409
Resources	p. 425
Index	p. 441
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